Demodex

About

Demodex is a microscopic mite that feasts on the hair follicles of mammals, including humans. Online, the animal periodically goes viral when an artistic rendering of the mite is shared on social media, making people horrified to learn that tiny mites live on their faces and feed on their eyelashes. Additionally, the Demodex has been the subject of numerous memes and other reaction-type content on social media.

Origin

Demodex was discovered by German scientist Gustav Simon in 1842 and named "Demodex" in 1843 by Sir Richard Owen.^[1] Roughly half of humans carry demodex and the mites are more likely to appear in older people. They may cause minor skin conditions in people.

A video of a Demodex moving on a human eyelash was posted to YouTube^[7] on October 7th, 2014, by user BioTissue, gaining over 64,000 views, 270 likes and 50 comments in 10 years.

Spread

Demodex mites have periodically gone viral on the internet, usually after an artistic rendering of the mite garners virality on social media. For example, one such spike in Demodex interest appeared in 2018 following a November 3rd, 2018, post in the subreddit /r/pics^[2] by Redditor PurestVideos that supposedly showed a Demodex, gaining over 650 points in six years. However, the picture was later proven to be of a silkworm, not a Demodex.^[4]

On January 28th, 2022, Twitter / X user @ElBadiablo^[5] posted the same image to Twitter, gaining over 520 retweets and 6,300 likes in nearly three years.

A genuine image of a Demodex was posted to /r/pics^[6] on March 16th, 2023, by Redditor DreaminDemon177, gaining over 6,000 points in 18 months.

On October 21st, 2024, the Twitter account @Interesting_aIl^[3] posted a computer-animated video demonstrating what Demodex do and look like, gaining over 430 retweets and 2,300 likes in one week.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References